FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT AURA - PAGE 2

One could not fail to notice the elation in Daniel Barenboim's conducting Thursday night when he led his Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the first subscription program of his fall residency at Orchestra Hall. How much this had to do with the recent renewal of his contract as music director (his term now extends through the season of 1999-2000), who can say? It also may have related to the positive response, from the audience and orchestra alike, to York Holler's "Aura," a CSO commission that was enjoying its world premiere in the presence of the German composer.

At last, the mystery will be over. Miles Davis fans soon will be able to hear an album that marks a long-awaited step forward for the 63-year-old trumpeter. The Columbia Records release is called "Aura," a lengthy, 10-part tone poem by Danish trumpeter-composer Palle Mikkelborg for trumpet and orchestra that was recorded in Copenhagen in 1984 but never released. Davis himself said in September 1985 that Columbia's refusal to release "Aura"-recorded in part with his own money-was one of the reasons why he left Columbia for Warner Bros.

In a stunning setback for state Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer, a jury Thursday found a former Bank of America broker not guilty of helping a hedge fund improperly trade mutual funds after markets had closed. Theodore Sihpol III was the first person to be charged with criminal offenses as a result of Spitzer's high-profile probes of Wall Street, and he was the first to take his case to a jury rather than settling and paying a fine. His acquittal on 29 of the 33 charges and mistrial on the remaining four "dents a little bit Eliot Spitzer's aura of invincibility," said Mark Winston, a former federal prosecutor who is a defense attorney at Baker & McKenzie in New York.

New Harvard research confirms some links, rejects others. Two new studies from Harvard examine the possible associations between migraine headaches and other conditions. One study offers encouraging news: the headaches will not hurt thinking skills. Another study suggests a warning: the headaches, when accompanied by aura, may signal an increased risk of heart attacks and stroke. "After high blood pressure, migraine with aura was the second strongest single contributor to the risk of heart attacks and strokes," says study author Dr. Tobias Kurth, adjunct associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.

For Chris Thomas, the news was devastating. Her medication was in San Francisco. She was in Canada. And her head felt about to explode. Thomas, of Tallahassee, Fla., was having a migraine, a debilitating headache that screams for more than two Tylenol. "I kept thinking that I would pass out because of the pain like they do on TV," said Thomas, recalling the most painful headache of her life. "But I never did." She lay on the bed in the darkened hotel room while her husband tried to track down the missing baggage.

For some people, migraine headaches are preceded by symptoms such as flashes of light or vision disturbances. This is called migraine with aura. People who have migraines with aura are generally told to avoid possible triggers, such as bright light and physical effort. But those can be difficult to avoid, and doing so may affect a person's quality of life. Now a study published online Jan. 23, 2012, in Neurology finds that suspected triggers for migraine with aura may not be as strong as some people think.

Aura is 22, a recent dumpee (her boyfriend took off West), a college graduate and an aspiring filmmaker with a couple of videos floating around on YouTube. She has returned from Ohio academia to a familiar, sleek, scarily white Manhattan loft, where her photographer mother and high school age sister (also a poet, also a brat) do their thing and find ways to prey on Aura's insecurities, in between offering disarming bits of comfort and solace, as only family can. She is not quite an independent woman but not quite the girl she was. To Aura, men are riddles, whose solutions generally end with the word "user," or "narcissist.

Back to the future: After founder Robert Redford announced Thursday that the Sundance Film Festival was "going back to its roots," the first competition film, "Howl," took on an aura of opening night mayhem, said the Los Angeles Times.

Saturn may finally have sex appeal, thanks to the Saturn Sky roadster, which is ready for retail, and the "concept" Aura sedan, which was met with excitement when it was introduced at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. ---------- Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Kris Karnopp (kkarnopp@tribune.com)